The dragon's harem

Chapter 1273: The Spice Inside

”How much fire can you absorb?” Arad looked at Amber, who had just landed, panting from exhaustion. She glanced at him and then growled, ”Canʼt you see? Itʼs not exactly easy, is it?”

She then looked at the cold ash around them, a worried expression on her face. ”One more time, and Iʼll be down for a while. Iʼd rather stay awake and mobile.”

Unlike most wizards, who were limited by their mana, spirits were limited by both their mana and the natural mana around them. A fire spirit like Amber could control the flames around them and bend them to her will. But doing such a thing puts a huge load on her mind, trying to overpower the will of the world on her own. It wasnʼt an easy thing to achieve.

Here in the Ash desert, she was limited in how much damage she could do to the fire-based abominations, but at the same time, the biggest debuff those monsters couldʼve faced. This was the reason Arad brought her with him, so she could limit whatever firepower Damnation had harvested from controlling Vulkan.

Arad doubted that Amber would be able to contain Vulkanʼs flame in any useful way, but she would be quite capable of stopping the minions, especially after being taught a few secrets of fire by the Nar, the Spirit Queen of fire.

For Eris, the reason he brought her with him is far simpler: raw divine power. He wanted someone who could both heal and deal damage. He is certain that even if Eris couldnʼt face Vulkan in combat, she would be at least able to stand her ground and protect Amber.

For Tempo, this was his kingdom, and his presence was a given. But there is one thing that Arad was keeping to himself: a trump card that lays in the depths of his stomach.

Arad looked at the pale ash beneath his feet and spread his magic far and wide. It took him a few seconds to find all of the survivors buried beneath the ash.

Around a hundred humans were holed up in a small bunker two hundred meters beneath the ground, and there were also several alive people literally buried in the ash, their skin burned and their minds almost breaking down from the slow death that loomed over their heads.

Arad immediately teleported into the bunker and pulled everyone inside it into his stomach without even greeting them. They werenʼt exactly safe; the air inside the bunker had grown smoky and stale from the ash and all of the humans breathing inside. Some of them had already died of suffocation.

And then he started teleporting all over the place and picked up all of the humans buried alive in the ash. Their condition was far worse than he expected. Some were already dead, and some couldnʼt be saved. Their flesh and bones were already cooked like a piece of chicken in an oven.

Eris immediately got to work healing those who could be saved inside Aradʼs stomach. The safe area he created seems to be already coming in handy, allowing him to store people without much worry.

”This is fucking humiliating.” A sharp voice growled, and the confused humans looked back, seeing a tiny red fairy sitting on a brazier, looking at them with an enraged face.

”Iʼm sure you agreed to this.” Eris glared at her for a second and went back to healing the burned people.

The Fire Spirit Queen Nar spat a mouthful of lava aside and grunted. She was only here because Zephyr asked her to. Otherwise, she would never lower herself so much as to accept to sit here inside Aradʼs tiny stomach. He couldʼve taken that hoe, Salamander. Nar had never seen such a scandalous and disgraceful Fire spirit like her. Those from Yogʼs world must be quite the embarrassment to spiritkind.

But Zephyr was also right. If theyʼre dealing with Vulkan, then Nar has a duty to attend. She must see little Vulkanʼs last moments with her own eyes. In fact, even if Zephyr didnʼt convince Nar to go with Arad, she wouldʼve gone with him on her own, even if it meant begging him to take her with him.

Nar knew very well that she was contradicting herself. On one hand, she would rather die than humiliate herself like this. But on the other hand, she would willingly humiliate herself more than this if it meant helping little Vulkan.

This was also the reason she was so fond of Zephyr. Zephyr understood Narʼs dilemma and came in to give her the last push. She didnʼt want to allow Nar to be the one to put herself in such a position. She would make sure to thank her properly later. Nar couldnʼt imagine herself asking Arad to put her in his stomach and take her with him to Vulkan.

Could gone on her own? Probably, but then Vulkan is bound to notice her from a thousand kilometers away. The great spirits are quite easy to track for power creatures, especially Vulkan.

Nar sighed, flames gushing from between her sharp teeth. ”Void Kid, how close are we to Vulkan?”

After a moment of silence, Arad finally replied. ”Iʼm not a kid anymore, and Vulkan is still a few thousand kilometers away, to be exact, three thousand, five hundred and a few.”

Nar cursed, but thankfully her curse wonʼt empower Damnation from Aradʼs stomach. ”Did you learn anything about her condition? Is she alive? Just taken over, dead? What about her soul? Did it get damaged?”

Arad sighed and his voice came soon after. ”Youʼre asking a bit too many questions for me to answer. First, her aura is mixed with Damnation so I think itʼs similar to Cronos, Damnation took over her corpse. For her soul, Iʼm sure she had already passed away. If that wasnʼt the case, Damnation wouldnʼt be causing this many troubles, would it?”

Nar glared up and shouted, ”Then fucking hurry! Do you expect me to just sit and wait here for hours while that thing desecrates her corpse? Youʼre just wasting your time there, arenʼt you?”

”First, yes. I do expect you to sit there and wait until we arrive. Second, the living are more important than the dead. Weʼll save as many lives as we can on our way to Vulkan.” Aradʼs voice was stern, deep, and serious.

”Are you saying that the dead are worthless? Arenʼt they more powerless than the humans you claim to be weak and need saving?”

”Weʼre in the land of the living, and Iʼll care about the living before the dead. Iʼll not let a life perish while trying to save a corpse.”

”Youʼre one...” She then sighed, ”Forget it! Just move your ass up and get me there.”